In electronic apparatus manufacturing, situations arise where it becomes desirable to fit structural elements and their relative positioning into small areas on a planar surface of a substrate. In such manufacturing it is always advantageous to use processes which are well developed in the art.
One well developed process uses a focused particle beam, usually in a high vacuum, that can, as examples, deliver localized energy such as heat and light that can promote or retard a physical process or chemical reaction on or through a surface or in an ambient and can physically abrade or alter a surface of a solid.
Another such type of process involves additive and subtractive operations through openings in a planar mask. The mask openings are usually lithographically positioned openings in a coating of a masking material.
While both types of processes provide manufacturing benefits and capabilities there have however, been limits encountered in efforts in combining the focused particle beam type processing with the planar masking type processing.
Among the considerations in using focused beam processing has been a need to pump down to a usually fairly high vacuum every time there is a different location or operation. Another consideration is that while the focus of the beam in energy delivery purposes is precise there is usually some scattering at the periphery.
Needs have been developing in the electronic apparatus manufacturing art for being able to use the wide range of localized energy delivery capabilities of focused particle beams with the precision of lithographic planar patterning.
One example of such a need frequently occurs in simple downsizing where it would be useful to be able to pack more devices into each area of an already laid out raster of areas on a surface. Another example of such a need is in the flat panel display technology where flexibility in substrate abrasion would be desirable. In the flat panel display technology, abrading of a surface in the pixel gives a pretilt to the liquid crystal increments and enhances the display. The relatively long standing in the art technique for the abrading has been rubbing the substrate surface with a velvet like material. A step in the art has been provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,826 where a focused particle beam is used to abrade the substrate surface. There is however a further need to be able to give different abrasion textures to different areas within an individual pixel area on a substrate. Each different texture area provides another liquid crystal rotational domain that in turn provides another widening increment to the viewing capability of the display.